So much awesome in just one picture

[cheftim]

I know exactly what you mean.

Before you can learn, you must be open to the idea, and a common belief is that UW felt he was "too good" to need any kind of change/improvement. That is likely why we never saw any evolution from him in terms of character, ring mechanics or psychology. About the only thing he did change was his ring gear and face paint.

It's a shame because the gimmick and character were SUPER OVER. There just wasn't enough substance to sustain. If there had been, then the old man probably would have been more accommodating in the salary demands during contract negotiations.


Here's a comparison:
By WM9, Hogan's act had run its course to where it became a tired, unwelcome paradigm with fans. He continued that struggle into his early WCW days. Then, he turned heel, headed up a street gang, and got many more unexpectedly successful years in the business.

UW had burned out his act much faster, did NOTHING to evolve the character, had about three matches in WCW (the same force behind Hogan), and was done in mainstream wrestling after that.
They couldn't have pushed him anymore than they did.
He went as far as he could.

I think a big reason Hogans act became tired is because he lost all his size and his lack of opponents. Hogans act was getting squashed by a monster only to body slam them, kick out from their finisher, and win. Earthquake was the last monster. I think the same goes for Warrior. I think Rude was great and Mr. Perfect will always be my favorite. I think if Warrior was beating up on big monster foes instead of Randy Savage and Sgt. Slaughter he would have gone a whole lot further as the top guy. I was never a Warrior fan if I sound like I'm defending him. He just didn't have the right dance partners.

[Montague]

Totally agree and McMahon set everything up for him when he won the title from Hogan to be the next great WWF champ and that fizzled  out bad as well.

I think a big reason Hogans act became tired is because he lost all his size and his lack of opponents. Hogans act was getting squashed by a monster only to body slam them, kick out from their finisher, and win. Earthquake was the last monster. I think the same goes for Warrior. I think Rude was great and Mr. Perfect will always be my favorite. I think if Warrior was beating up on big monster foes instead of Randy Savage and Sgt. Slaughter he would have gone a whole lot further as the top guy. I was never a Warrior fan if I sound like I'm defending him. He just didn't have the right dance partners.

Something else about Hogan, was there was seldom a “part II” to his feuds. Once he annihilated the monster heel, the program was over and it was onto the next monster of the month.

Guys like Flair CONSTANTLY revisited rivalries with the likes of Dusty, Funk, Steamboat, etc.

[Playboy]

Something else about Hogan, was there was seldom a “part II” to his feuds. Once he annihilated the monster heel, the program was over and it was onto the next monster of the month.

Guys like Flair CONSTANTLY revisited rivalries with the likes of Dusty, Funk, Steamboat, etc.

That's the formula that worked in the 80's leading into the early ninties for the WWF (then) at the time.

[Montague]

That's the formula that worked in the 80's leading into the early ninties for the WWF (then) at the time.

Yep.
Unfortunately for Hulk, it simply wasn’t a long-range formula.

[Playboy]

Yep.
Unfortunately for Hulk, it simply wasn’t a long-range formula.

All good things eventually come to an end.

[cheftim]

All good things eventually come to an end.

I truly believe Hogan could of gone much further with it if he stayed massive and had larger then life opponents. That Slaughter feud just went on too long for me. If he maintained his size and intensity during his interviews Hulkamania would have kept running wild.

[Montague]

I truly believe Hogan could of gone much further with it if he stayed massive and had larger then life opponents. That Slaughter feud just went on too long for me. If he maintained his size and intensity during his interviews Hulkamania would have kept running wild.

He may have perhaps extended it, but I don’t think by much. A little more dimension to the act may have helped.

In that regard, I liken Hogan’s original (80’s) run to UW’s - the difference being Warrior reached his end a lot faster.

[Hulkster]

the biggest problem with Warrior's title run is they had nothing for him to do afterwards.

-he already beat the top guy and they wouldn't continue the program
-they put him up against Rude (who was awesome) but he was beaten easily by Warrior only a few months prior.
-they had him in tag matches with either Texas Tornado (vs rude/perfect) and with LOD against all 3 members of Demolition for months.

they had him sort of facing Dibiase and Perfect but they never established an actual feud at all with either one of them. no establishing sneak attack, no build up etc..

it was the WORST booking ever.

he should have been feuding with Savage over the title like they did in 92 right from the get go.

[Humble Narcissist]

The steroid scandal that hit the WWF had a huge impact as well.  Remember when Warrior lost all his muscle and started wearing the singlet with the Slim Goodbody drawn on muscles?

[Montague]

the biggest problem with Warrior's title run is they had nothing for him to do afterwards.

-he already beat the top guy and they wouldn't continue the program
-they put him up against Rude (who was awesome) but he was beaten easily by Warrior only a few months prior.
-they had him in tag matches with either Texas Tornado (vs rude/perfect) and with LOD against all 3 members of Demolition for months.

they had him sort of facing Dibiase and Perfect but they never established an actual feud at all with either one of them. no establishing sneak attack, no build up etc..

it was the WORST booking ever.

he should have been feuding with Savage over the title like they did in 92 right from the get go.

Those are all good points.
Do you think the booking limitations correlated UW's limitations in so far as what they could do with him/get out of him?

This isn't a knock; just an observation - Warrior most certainly did not have the same versatility as someone like Curt Hennig. We "criticize" Hogan for the same thing, and UW was (to me) a simpler version of Hulk.

[Montague]

Bruce Prichard told a hilarious story on his podcast about UW's press slam.
He described the accepted method of hand positioning and opponent cooperation. He then described UW's technique in which he literally grabbed his opponent by the testicles, SQUEEZED, and muscled them up for the slam.

It sounded like Honky Tonk was one of the first main roster guys to which this happened. Prior to that, it had been mostly TV jobbers who weren't going to say anything and risk not being used again. Anyway, Honky went up to Hellwig after the match and said something like, "What the fuck was that shit? You do that to me again, and I'll rip your goddam eye out."

Prichard said Warrior just looked at Honky all confused and very innocently asked what was wrong. HTM pointed out the ball-crushing brutality of UW's finisher. Warrior simply said, "That's how I do it."
HTM replied, "Not on me!"


This is a good example of UW's unwillingness to improve/evolve, and why I don't think he ever reached his full potential. Had he made the effort to do just a few simple, basic things, he probably could have gone much farther, IMO.